.480 Ruger & Ruger's Super Redhawk

By Dick Metcalf, Technical Editor, Shooting Times.

Page Two - The .480 Super Redhawk

When Sturm, Ruger & Co. accepted Steve Hornady’s offer to cooperatively develop a new heavy-power big-bore cartridge/ revolver combination, it decided not to use one of its large-frame single-action revolvers as the platform—in spite of the fact that SA revolvers are typically the guns of choice for such high-end loads. Instead, it chose the double-action Super Redhawk (SRH), which is now being chambered for the very first cartridge ever to bear the Ruger name.

SPECS Ruger Super Redhawk .480 Ruger DA Revolver

Manufacturer....................... Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. 200 Ruger Rd. Prescott, AZ 86301 Model ..................Super Redhawk Operation ..............Double-action revolver Caliber ..........................480 Ruger Barrel length ................9.5 inches Overall length ...............15 inches Weight, empty .............58 ounces Safety........................ Transfer-bar ignition;swing-out cylinder interlock Sights ...........Ruger white-outline adjustable rear; elevation-interchangeable red insert ramp front Sight radius .............11.25 inches Rifling ............................6 grooves, 1:18 RH twist Stocks........................ Rubber with black laminated panels Cylinder capacity ..........6 rounds Finish ...............Ruger Target gray Price .......................................$745

It was actually the natural choice. Just the year before last, Ruger introduced a .454 Casull version of the Super Redhawk and in the process had already engineered the original SRH design to accommodate the 50,000+ average psi pressures generated by that powerful load. The new .475-caliber .480 Ruger operates at a SAAMI-spec maximum average pressure of 48,000 psi, so the basic structural job was already done. And for the many of you who are wondering, Ruger spokesmen say that they do not consider the existing single-action Super Blackhawk/Bisley configuration to have a sufficient design margin for these and other (.475 Linebaugh) more powerful high-end cartridges. Should Ruger decide to offer single-action chamberings for such loads, it will be in a thoroughly redeveloped platform.

The new stainless-steel Super Redhawk in .480 Ruger is available in either 7 1/2- or 9 1/2-inch barrel lengths, with unfluted cylinder, and is finished with the same hard, slick Ruger “Target-gray” surface treatment as is applied to the company’s varmint version Model 77 bolt-action rifles. It comes with Ruger’s frame-integral scope-mount dovetails and patented one-inch stainless-steel scope rings in the same finish. Suggested retail price is $745. Like all Ruger firearms products, the new Super Redhawk .480 Ruger is a rugged, durable tool, certain to appeal to those who appreciate big-bore, heavy-impact handguns and was specifically designed with the big-game sportsman in mind.

The Super Redhawk was originally designed and introduced in 1986 as a .44 Magnum and is still available in its original 7 1/2- and 9 1/2-inch .44-caliber iterations with a natural brushed-satin stainless-steel finish and fluted cylinders. The .454 Casull and .480 Ruger models come with the Target-gray finish and unfluted cylinders. The Ruger catalog lists the same weight for the 7 1/2-inch-barrelled versions of the .44 Magnum, .454 Casull, and .480 Ruger, at 53 ounces, but due to the bigger diameter chambers and bore, the actual measured weight of a .454 Super Redhawk is about an ounce less than the .44 and the .480 is about an ounce less than that.

Other than these differences, and the fact that the .454 Casull and .480 Ruger versions wear black laminated grip panels instead of the brown-colored Goncalo Alves wood panels used on the patented cushioned grips on the .44s, there are no other significant dimensional or configuration differences between the previous versions and the .480 Ruger Super Redhawk edition. The upper front of the cylinder window in the .480’s frame has been opened very slightly to allow for the slightly larger diameter of the threaded portion of the .475-caliber barrel. The 400-series stainless-steel material used in the barrel and frame of the .480 Ruger model is subjected to different hardening and heat-treat processes for additional strength, as is done with the .454 Casull versions as well.

The Super Redhawk looks intimidating. The frame topstrap has more metal than any revolver made, with a massive forward frame extension that completely encloses the rear three inches of the heavy, nearly one-inch-diameter round bull barrel. According to Ruger, the heavy extended frame “provides lengthened bearing surfaces and relocated barrel threads for greater strength and rigidity in barrel mounting.” The topstrap and frame extension also provide the mount locations for attaching the scope rings. Even the front sight has an extra heavy-duty look; an interchangeable black steel, red-insert blade sits in a stainless-steel ramp twice the size of any other revolver’s front sight base.

One thing sure to cause continuing comment about the .480 Ruger version of the SRH is the six-shot cylinder. And let me tell you, with a .475-caliber cartridge that is a full cylinder; so full, in fact, that the case head rims of the cartridges actually touch. In fact, small normal manufacturing variations in rim-head diameter, or any tiny ding or burr, can cause interference between cartridges and can perhaps require a switch or rotation of rounds (this condition arose several times among some of the hunters on the Hornady field-test hunt recounted herein). The chamber walls might give pause to some because they appear unusually “thin” considering the inherent power of the load, but Ruger avers unequivocally that its thoroughly tested structural steel and special heat-treat provides a massive safety margin. I believe it. Ruger never errs except on the side of caution.

Beyond this, the rest of the Super Redhawk revolver design is already familiar to Shooting Times readers and requires no further detailed description here. What everyone really wants to know about the new .480 Ruger-chambered Super Redhawk is how well does it perform and what does it feel like to shoot?

Page One - The Cartridge: History, Development, Ballistic Comparison
Page Two - The Gun: Specs, History, Looks
Page Three - Shooting the .480 Ruger, Velocity/Accuracy Chart, .480 Guns to Come

This article was originally published in Shooting Times magazine in May, 2001.

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